Important Note
Tech Narratives was a subscription website, which offered expert commentary on the day's top tech news from Jan Dawson, along with various other features, for $10/month. As of Monday October 16, 2017, it will no longer be updated. An archive of past content will remain available for the time being. I've written more about this change in the post immediately below, and also here.
Apple V. Google A ‘Stable Duopoly’ in the U.S., Says Stifel – Tech Trader Daily – Barrons.com (Dec 21, 2016)
Interesting data here on purchasing patterns for smartphones in the US – obviously iOS and Android dominate, but it’s notable that Google Pixel buyers are mostly coming from the Android, not iPhone, base. The Pixel launch certainly seems to have been a success, but that’s been bad news for other Android vendors, not Apple, so far.
via Apple V. Google A ‘Stable Duopoly’ in the U.S., Says Stifel – Tech Trader Daily – Barrons.com
Nvidia Surges in 2016 Using Graphics Chips to Challenge Intel – Bloomberg (Dec 21, 2016)
Nvidia has been one of the great chip success stories of the last couple of years, coming at the market from a new angle and outperforming competitors including Intel in emerging opportunities like autonomous driving. This is a great summary of that strategy and trajectory.
via Nvidia Surges in 2016 Using Graphics Chips to Challenge Intel – Bloomberg
Here are all the Twitter executives who flew the coop in 2016 – Recode (Dec 21, 2016)
This is definitely part of the Twitter is Stuck narrative, one that I have argued for myself. Twitter seems unable to retain senior executives, and late 2016 saw a real exodus from management ranks. I suspect 2017 will make or break Jack Dorsey as CEO – the paradox here is that he seems to want to control product, but is also running two companies at once, leaving him unable to dedicate enough time to the project while also squeezing out those who could devote the appropriate resources to the job.
via Here are all the Twitter executives who flew the coop in 2016 – Recode
Apple is losing focus again — with no Steve Jobs coming to the rescue – Business Insider (Dec 20, 2016)
This is one of the most enduring narratives about Apple – that it’s somehow lost its way and is heading for a repeat of the late 1990s. These pieces are often so overblown that they’re hard to take seriously, but the drumbeat does seem to be getting louder lately. Apple always struggles most to control the narrative when it doesn’t have big, exciting, new products to shout about, and it feels like we’re in one of those periods right now.
via Apple is losing focus again — with no Steve Jobs coming to the rescue – Business Insider
Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy | whitehouse.gov (Dec 20, 2016)
A report from the White House on artificial intelligence and how it will affect the economy in years to come. The impact of AI on the economy and people’s lives is certainly an emerging narrative, but one where there’s very little consensus so far.
via Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy | whitehouse.gov
The Tesla Advantage: 1.3 Billion Miles of Data – Bloomberg (Dec 20, 2016)
This is a huge oversimplification – Tesla’s cars aren’t entirely autonomous, and mostly use their limited autonomy on highways, whereas truly autonomous vehicles need to learn how to drive in far more complex urban environments. But having production cars actively using the technology certainly helps Tesla.
via The Tesla Advantage: 1.3 Billion Miles of Data – Bloomberg
Teaching a Machine to Steer a Car – Udacity Inc – Medium (Dec 20, 2016)
This has been a fascinating experiment – online coding course provider Udacity partnered with Google (now Waymo) to allow coders to remotely control self-driving cars. The results are now in. The experiment is just that, but highlights both the possibilities and some of the risks of future code-driven cars.
via Teaching a Machine to Steer a Car – Udacity Inc – Medium
As fake news sites boom, 58% of Americans still trust their sources – ReportLinker (Dec 20, 2016)
This is good context for a couple of different narratives – fake news and Facebook’s enormous power as a filter for news and other content. This is survey data on where people get their news from, and it shows that Facebook is the main online news source, with 32% of respondents saying they use it (Google News is next, at 21%). Some 18% of users only use one source of information, and for half of those it’s Facebook, whereas the majority do use multiple sources. And lots of people still use newspapers and TV for information too.
via As fake news sites boom, 58% of Americans still trust their sources – ReportLinker
Amazon plots new course for package deliveries – Financial Times (Dec 19, 2016)
Amazon is outgrowing the US delivery infrastructure, especially when it comes to Christmas sales, and so is making increasing investments in its own logistics operation beyond warehouses and fulfillment centers. The challenge here is the difference between average daily load and peak load at busy times, but Amazon seems willing to invest for the peak.
via Amazon plots new course for package deliveries
Uber’s Loss Decelerates, Reflecting China Exit — The Information (Dec 19, 2016)
Uber may have long since outgrown the startup label, but its financial state continues to suggest its aptitude. Its loss-leading strategy to win market share doesn’t seem to have fazed repeated rounds of investors, but continues to generate headlines. The big question remains whether there’s a path to profitability anytime soon here, in well-established individual markets at least.
via Uber’s Loss Decelerates, Reflecting China Exit — The Information
see also Bloomberg
Google facing FTC scrutiny over privacy — yet again | The Washington Post (Dec 19, 2016)
The alleged privacy violations at issue here aren’t new, but the threat of formal action over them is. But of course this also taps into the long-running narrative about advertising and privacy and Google’s role in particular. Whether you care or not depends on your overall view of the tradeoffs between business models and privacy, though awareness of (and to some extent concern over) these is rising.
via Google facing FTC scrutiny over privacy — yet again – The Washington Post
Angry Amazon pilots are warning last-minute shoppers that holiday deliveries may be late – Recode (Dec 19, 2016)
This piece highlights two things – Amazon’s ongoing challenges with ensuring that its deliveries arrive on time, and the complexities of getting deeper into logistics with flying its own planes. Anecdotally, I saw several packages from Amazon delayed by one or more days in early December, so the existing system clearly is feeling the strain.
via Angry Amazon pilots are warning last-minute shoppers that holiday deliveries may be late – Recode
Voice Is the Next Big Platform, and Alexa Will Own It – Backchannel (Dec 19, 2016)
I disagree with the second statement in this headline, and would want to qualify the first too, but this headline fits perfectly in our Voice and Assistants narrative, which has more analysis on why. Simply put, the insistence that Amazon somehow owns voice because it has an effective voice device in the home is overblown, and voice itself will be only one of many ways we’ll interact with our devices.
via Voice Is the Next Big Platform, and Alexa Will Own It
Apple, Facebook, Google and Uber say they won’t help Trump build a registry of Muslim-Americans – Recode (Dec 17, 2016)
There’s growing consensus on this point now among the major tech companies, and thankfully little new noise from the Trump transition team about putting this particular campaign promise into action. Of course, that’s not to say it will never happen, or that the administration couldn’t build the registry itself, but it’s good to see tech companies showing some backbone on this point at least.
Uber plans to keep its self-driving cars on San Francisco roads despite DMV’s demand to stop – Recode (Dec 16, 2016)
This story has been characteristic of Uber’s disregard for regulations, which in the past have mostly been designed to protect the taxi lobby, but with self-driving cars moves into the realm of protecting drivers, passengers, and other road users. I suspect Uber will get a lot less sympathy from its users over these issues, and this approach will eventually backfire.
Facebook Discloses Another Metrics Mishap Affecting Publishers – WSJ (Dec 16, 2016)
The latest incident from Facebook relates to Comscore tracking of iPhone usage, and comes a week after Facebook’s last disclosure of errors. All this continues to pile pressure on Facebook to engage more outside auditors in order to regain confidence in its metrics.
via Facebook Discloses Another Metrics Mishap Affecting Publishers – WSJ
Wynn Las Vegas to equip 4,748 hotel rooms with Amazon Echo: It’s ‘seamlessly delicious,’ Steve Wynn says – GeekWire (Dec 14, 2016)
I wrote a post once in which I said anything relating to home automation is really tough to market, because you can never really show people how it will work in their own home in a store environment. Hotels may be one exception to that, and this deal with Wynn seems like a fantastic way for Amazon to market Echo and the Alexa functionality among a fairly high-end clientele.
Car-Free Living in the United States: What the Data Says – Medium (Dec 13, 2016)
This is interesting for a couple of different reasons: first off, it suggests something about the impact of Uber, Lyft, and other ride-sharing services on car ownership, something that’s been predicted and which now seems to be coming to pass. Secondly, it may suggest something about changing demographics and priorities with regard to ownership – in at least some of these states, falling percentages of car ownership are actually about new households exhibiting different behavior, not existing households changing behavior.
via Car-Free Living in the United States: What the Data Says – Medium
The Inside Story Behind Pebble’s Demise (Dec 12, 2016)
Pebble was one of those rare combinations – an apparently popular brand that somehow nonetheless failed to translate that popularity into financial success. Its profile arguably far exceeded its achievements, and I was never a fan of its products. Its ultimate failure suggests few others were either. But this is an interesting recounting of what went wrong, particularly because Backchannel has been covering Pebble rather positively as part of a recent series.
via The Inside Story Behind Pebble’s Demise
Facebook Says It Has Miscalculated Several More Engagement Metrics – Forbes (Dec 9, 2016)
This was the third time Facebook had to confess to misstating certain engagement metrics, with at least one bug still unresolved at the time of the announcement, and fixes for the rest coming a week or so later. In November, Facebook announced that it planned to create a measurement council to offer more third-party verification, but those plans aren’t concrete yet.
via Facebook Says It Has Miscalculated Several More Engagement Metrics